7.7-acre Waikiki complex advances
| • | Outrigger grows in Australia |
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By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Outrigger Hotels & Resorts' plans for a $300 million hotel, retail and entertainment complex in Waikiki has passed a crucial step in getting necessary permits after a city department recommended approval of the project with some adjustments.
The City and County of Honolulu's Department of Planning and Permitting told the City Council in a report released yesterday to proceed in its consideration of the 7.7-acre Waikiki Beach Walk project that is widely expected to revitalize an aging tourist district.
But the city department also recommended that Outrigger add more open space and more parking spaces to its redevelopment plans.
The City Council has 60 days to act on the permit requests, but can request an extension. The council zoning committee, chaired by councilman Duke Bainum, will schedule a public hearing on the permits before deciding on a recommendation to the full council.
The Department of Planning and Permitting recommended approval of both a planned development land use permit for the Waikiki Beach Walk project, set to open by 2006, and a special management area permit for a smaller area within the project under a coastal management ordinance. In the process, it endorsed a number of exemptions that Outrigger is seeking to city requirements, but refused to approve other requests.
"We see an opportunity to redevelop the area in a much more pedestrian-friendly, a much nicer environment than what is there now," said Department of Planning and Permitting director Randall Fujiki.
With plans to raze six hotels and replace them with a retail entertainment complex, hotel and pedestrian complex, Outrigger is proposing to increase density — amounting to a 24 percent increase in the floor area — as well as exceed a 300-foot limit with a new hotel tower.
The city department gave approval to the tower's extra 50 feet, and was also somewhat flexible on its open-space requirement.
The Outrigger project includes 22 percent open space, far below the 50 percent requirement. The city asked for an increase to 22.8 percent, or an additional 3,100 square feet of open space, proposing that Outrigger cut back building encroachments along Lewers Street and Beach Walk and granting approval for some but not all exemptions on encroachment and how far buildings are set back from the street.
Outrigger said yesterday that it was still reviewing the city's recommendation and was not prepared to comment. But president and chief executive David Carey has said that because of its design, the project should be allowed the exception.
"The quality of open space we provide in the plaza certainly more than meets the intent of the zoning," Carey said after an Aug. 30 public hearing on the project. "We believe it's worthy of an exception by the way we structured it."
The city department also raised concerns about the planned parking Outrigger is proposing for the project. Outrigger has proposed fulfilling part of its requirement for 1,170 parking spaces using 640 on-site spaces, 193 valet spaces and 250 spaces from public parking at Fort DeRussy.
But the department noted that the military-run Hale Koa hotel may withdraw Outrigger's permission to use those spaces with only 30 days notice. It also noted that the total parking in Outrigger's proposal was 87 spaces shy of the requirement.
The city allowed an exemption to use valet stalls toward the parking requirement, but recommended that Outrigger be required to find the remaining 87 alternate parking stalls.
Lewers Street area neighbors, including condominium development Imperial Hawaii and Halekulani Corp., owner of the Halekulani hotel, have said they are in support of the project but have concerns about traffic and open space.
In its recommendation, the city asked Outrigger for a report analyzing traffic impact and a traffic management plan.
"Since you're going to redevelop the whole area, let's address the traffic concerns. Now is a good time to do it," said Larry Chang, Halekulani Corp.'s senior vice president and chief financial officer.
If the City Council approves the project's conceptual plan, a more detailed plan would need to go back to the city Department of Permitting and Planning for approval of a Waikiki special district permit. The first phase of construction could begin late next year.
"As we move along, we may be making some tweaks here and there, depending on what comments we hear either from the city or from our neighbors," Outrigger chief operating officer Mel Kaneshige said this month.
Among the development's amenities would be a Hawaiian Music Preservation Hall and Visitors Center and two new traffic signals in the area. The city also recommended that Outrigger contribute to the cost of two BRT stations on Saratoga Road estimated to cost a total of $365,000, provide a public restroom, make events for the public at the Hawaiian music hall free, provide an area for display of historical artifacts uncovered during the project construction and allow joint use of loading facilities.
Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470, or at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
